The object of the invention is a cooling tunnel for flexible packages filled with hot liquid products, such as hot-fill, packaged beverages.
Embodiments of cooling tunnels for packages filled with hot liquid products are known, wherein the liquid is packaged at a high temperature for the purpose of sterilizing the container itself and those components of which it is made up, such as, for example, straws and closing elements. The cooling tunnels for packages containing hot liquid products form part of the packaging installations and are arranged on the production line next to the packaging line. In summary, the cooling tunnel embodiments comprise loading means of the packages in the tunnel, transport means of the packages through the tunnel, cooling means of the packages on their path through the tunnel and collection means of the packages once cooled.
The main drawback of the known embodiments of the cooling tunnels like those described earlier is the high cost and size of the means used for the transport, loading and unloading of the packages in the cooling tunnel and basically, as a consequence of the flexible nature of the package, it prevents their piling up and is largely responsible for making their handling difficult, requiring, for example, the use of individual mobile containers linked to conveying gears, adapted for transporting the filled packages.
The cooling tunnel for packages filled with hot liquid products object of the invention, is applicable to automatic packaging installations of the type comprising a main conveyor belt for conveying the filled packages through a cooling device which extends throughout the tunnel; loading means of the filled packages onto the main conveyor belt; and unloading means of the filled packages from the main conveyor belt.
The cooling tunnel object of the invention is characterised in that the loading means of the packages are adapted for loading the packages onto the main conveyor belt at its starting end portion, forming sets that succeed one another, the packages of each set forming an arrangement in orthogonal rows and columns, in which the rows are arranged transversally with regard to the main conveyor belt; and in that the unloading means are adapted for simultaneously unloading the packages of each row that reaches the end point of the main conveyor belt.
According to another feature of the cooling tunnel of the invention, the loading means comprise a first conveyor belt for packages, adapted for receiving at its starting end, groups of packages arranged parallel to it and with their bottom positioned in the advancing direction of the conveyor belt, equal in number to the rows in each set of packages to be loaded onto the main conveyor belt; a package alignment device, arranged at the end point of the first conveyor belt, adapted for aligning the packages of each group of packages by their bottoms; a second conveyor belt of packages arranged coplanar, adjoining and in longitudinal alignment with respect to the first conveyor belt, and also arranged coplanar, adjoining and transversal with regard to the main conveyor belt, adapted for receiving at its starting end the groups of packages aligned by the alignment device and for forming the sets of packages to be loaded onto the main conveyor belt; and a transfer device, adapted for transferring the sets of packages from the second conveyor belt to the main conveyor belt.
It is also a feature of the cooling tunnel according to the invention that the first conveyor belt has a transport speed V, whereas the second conveyor belt has a first transport speed V1 equal to the transport speed V of the first conveyor belt, and a second transport speed V2, greater then V1, adapted so that the speeds V and V1 of the first conveyor belt and of the second conveyor belt, respectively, permit the formation on the second conveyor belt of a set of packages to be transferred to the main conveyor belt, whereas the speed V2 of the second conveyor belt makes it possible to create an interval between successive sets of packages to be transferred.
Another feature of the invention consists of the fact that the alignment device is arranged transversally with regard to the first conveyor belt and is capable of moving between two positions, a package alignment position, in which the packages from each group successively reach the device, and a passing position, in which the aligned packages from each group reach the starting end of the second conveyor belt.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the transfer device comprises a transfer body provided with independent slots, adapted for receiving corresponding rows of packages from each set of packages to be loaded onto the main conveyor belt, each slot being provided with an inlet, adapted for allowing the packages from the row to pass through, and with an open bottom.
The invention is also characterised in that the transfer body is capable of sequential movement from among four positions, a first position in which the transfer body is superimposed onto the second conveyor belt, a second position, coplanar to the previous transfer one of the set of packages to the main conveyor belt, a third position, superimposed onto the second position and a fourth position, coplanar to the third position and superimposed onto the first position.
According to another feature of the invention, the unloading means comprise a shaft arranged transversally with regard to the main conveyor belt and capable of rotating in both directions, provided with a plurality of radial blades, adapted for receiving a row of packages and, by the rotation of the shaft, deposit it into the package emptying means.